Valve



May 15, 1945.

H. D. COULBOURN VALVE Filed Nov. 15, 1943 it Z INVENTQR. How/220 D 6004/3 cue/v Patented May 15,1945 a l UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE VALVE 7 Howard 1)., Coulbourn, Wynnewood, Pa.

, Application November 15, 1943, Serial No. 510,295

1 Claim. (01. 277-.-29)

This invention relates to valves andis conperform the dual function of closing the weep cerned primarily with the so-called safety hole and positively causing the head of the plug valves which are included in gas lines for the to ,be seated on itscomplemental, seat in the purpose of automatically discontinuing the, flow valve casing.

f gas should the line be broken or otherwise 5 A somewhat more detailed object of the indamaged. vention is the provision, in a valve mechanism It is now common practice to supply gas to a of the character aforesaid, of a conical seat for burner or torch under pressure. This gashas closing the weep hole, and a complemental conibeen delivered through a safety valve which recal needle point on, the stem.

mains open when a required condition of bal- There may be occasions when dirt or foreign ance'd pressures on both sides of the valve 010- matter will accumulate on the seat in the casing tains. However, if this balance is disturbed, such and thus interfere with accurate seating of the as by a break in the flexible conduit which orplug head. Another highly important object of dinarily connects the safety valve with the burnthe invention is the provision in a. valve of this er, th safety valve automatically closes. It has type of means for accurately insuring that. the also been generally recognized as necessary to flow of 'gas between the intake and the outlet include in the line which delivers the gas a will be shut off even though the head of the plug stop valve which may be manuallyoperated to be only partially seated. In attaining this end, positively shut off the flow of gas, such as during the casing is formed with another valve seat beperiods of nonuse. Heretofore, these stop valves tween the intake and the valve seat which co.- have been separate and removed from the safety operates with. the head .of the plug. The valve valves aforesaid. stem is provided with a ring which is adapted for With the foregoing conditions, in mind, this cooperation with this additional seat, and which invention has in view, as its foremost object, 7 ring will be properly seated even though the the provision of a combination safety and stop. 2 head of the plug be unseated. valve. Stated in another way, the invention has More in detail, the invention has as an obas an object the provision of a valve which perject the provision of a valve stem, thelower end forms both functions of the safety valve and of which is formed as a conical ring complethe functions of the stop valve. mental to the seat in the valve casing. The nee- In carrying out this idea, a' valve casing of 9 dle point, made as a separate entity from the conventional design is employed. This casing stem, is adapted for cooperation with the seat includesga gas intake'and a gas outlet. v Between -in the plug. Expensive spring means is associated the intake and the outlet is a passage terminatwith the stem and needle point, and this spring ing at one end in a shoulder that is ground down means may be overcome after the needle point. to provide a valve seat. A plug is' designed to is seatedin the plug head to permit'further fit in this passa e and is enlarged atone end downward movement, so as to insure proper seattoflform aconical ring complemental to the said ing of the valve stem ring on its seat in the seat, A spring means is associated with this plug casing.

and tends to keep thefconical surface thereof Various other more detailed objects and adupr ised from the seat. However, pressure 0fv 0 vantages of the invention, 'such as arise in congas from the intake may. under certain -condi-, nection with carrying out the above noted tions, be effective on the enlarged head to overthoughts in a practical embodiment'will in part come the influence of the spring means and become apparent and in part be hereinafter statseat the conical surface on the valve seat. ed as a description of the invention proceeds.

A particularly important object of th inven The invention, therefore, comprises a combition is the provision, in a, valve assembly of the nation safety and stop valve, of the character character outlined in the preceding paragraph. above outlined, and which includes secondary or of a plug which is formed with a Weep hole tha supplementary valve elements for insuring that establishes communication between opposite sides the flow of gas through the valve will be stopped,

of the enlarged head and which terminates in even though the stop valve be improperly or in a valve seat. A valve stem is provided for co accurately seated. operation with the plug, and this stem is formed For a full and more complete understandin atone end as a valve which is complemental to of the invention, reference may be had to the the seat in the plug. The gist of the present following description and accompanying draw invention lies'in the fact that this stemmay inc, wherein:

ence character C. The casing C includes a gas intake represented at I!) and an outlet at H. The intake I is adapted to be connected to a suitable source of supply of gas under pressure, such as indicated by the internally threaded nipple. Likewise, the outlet l I is adapted to be connected to a flexible conduit such as a rubber hose by the external. thread shown at l2. Ordinarily, a burner or torch (not illustrated) will be operatively connected to the free end of this flexible conduit.

Extending inwardly from the intake I0 is a horizontal cylindrical passage l3 which communicates with the main central vertical bore of the valve casing which is depicted at H. Communicating with this bore I is a bore l of restricted diameter. Between the bores l4 and i5 is a conical shoulder I6 that is ground down to provide a valve seat, the function of which will later be described in detail. Communicating with the bore is another bore ll of still further diminished diameter. Between the bores l5 and I1, there is a shoulder iii, the corner of which is ground down to provide a valve seat l9. At its lower end, the bore I'l communicates with a horizontal assage that extends to the outlet ll. Between this passage 20 and the bore H is a ring-like shoulder 2| which is adapted to support a spring, as will be later pointed out.

The upperportion of the mainbore M is threaded as indicated at 22, and screwed into this threaded bore 22 is a sleeve 23 which is both internally and externally threaded. The internally threaded bore of the sleeve 23 is indicated at 24 and receives the threaded portion 25 of a valve stem 26. The upper end of thevalve stem 26 carries an operating member such as the handle 21.

There are many old and well-known arrangements for packing the stem 26 in the sleeve 23. Inasmuch as the particular packing employed is not a part of this invention, the packing assembly is merely referred to in its entirety by the reference character P, and .is intended to be only illustrative of one packing arrangement which may be employed. The purpose of this packing, of course, is to prevent any leakage of gas past the valve stem 26, and this prevention is further enhanced by a conical valve seat 28 formed at the lower end 'of the bore 24 of the sleeve 23. The valve stem 26 is formed with a conical surface Zllthat is complemental to the seat 28, and which, when seated thereon, preventsthe entrance of gas into the bore 24.

Referring now more particularly to Figure 2, the lower end of the valve stem 26 is shown as taking the form of a ring 38 that encloses a re cess 3| which, in turn, is counter-bored as indicated at 32. The external corner of. the ring 33 is ground off to provide a conical valve surface 33 that is complemental to the valveseat l6 and which is intended to be seated thereon under certain conditions. The outer portion of the recess Si is threaded and screwed thereinto is a ring plug 34 having a central opening 35. A needle member 35 extends through this opening 35 in the ring plug 34, and the inner end of this needle member 36 is enlarged to provide a head 3?. An expansion spring 38 is positioned in the counterbore 32 and engages the bottom of this counterbore at one end and the head 31 at the other. The outer free extremity of the needle member 36 is provided with a conical valve surface represented at 39.

Referring now more particularly to Figures 3, 4 and 5, and herein is depicted the plug member, which constitutes the most highly essential part of this invention. This plug is referred to in its entirety by the reference character A and is shown as comprising a head 40 and a shank 4|. Between the head 40 and the shank 4| is a conical shoulder 42 that is complemental to the valve seat [9. The shank ll has flat sides 63 joined by rounded corners 44, and these fiat sides provide adequate space around the plug in the bore H for the passage of gas.

The head 40 is formed with a cross kerf 35. A weep hole 46 extends vertically throughout the shank and head of the plug A. In the head, this Weep hole :46 terminates in a conical valve seat 4! that is complemental to the conical point 39 on the needle 36.

It will be noted that the plug A is positioned with the head Mi in the bore I5, while the shank M is located in the bore I 1. An expansion spring 48 is located beneath the bottom end of the shank 4| and bears against the shoulder 2 l. The mode of operation of the above described valve mechanism may be outlined as follows: When the handle 2'! is operated to rotate the stem to cause the valve to assume an open position, the surface 29 on the stem engages the seat 28 to seal off any possibility of gas escaping up past the valve stem. In this open position, the conical surface 33 of the ring.30 is spaced from its seat [6, thus permitting the flow of gas past this seat. When the valve is firstopened, it will be assumed that there is a source of supply of gas under pressure in communication with the intake 10. For exemplary purposes, this gas may be said to have a pressure of30 lbs, -When the valve is first opened, the pressure at the outlet II will be that of the atmosphere, namely, 14.7 lbs. Thus, the pressure of gas on the intake side is initially effective to keep the conical surface 420i the head 4| seated on the valve seat [9, but, upward movement of the valve stem 25 also withdraws the needle point 39 from its seat 41. Thus, the Weep hole 46 is opened and gas passes from the intake 10 through this weep hole to the under side of the head 40 of the plug. As this weeping continues, the differential in pressures on opposite sides of the head 40 is gradually equalized, and, when a condition of balance is substantially obtained, the spring 48 is effective to raise the plug A and lift the conical surface 42 from its seat I 9.

The fully open condition is now established and gas will pass from the intake in through the valve and out through the'outlet H to the burner,-torch or the operating instrumentalities. Should the flexible line be cut, or for any other reason should the pressure of gas on the outlet side ll be rapidly diminished, the valve will function as a safety valve'as the gas pressure on the intake side It! will quickly move the plug A into-closingposition. The only gas which will be lost will be that which passes through the lish a completely closed condition.

weep hole 46, and, when there is'no'conflnin condition on the outlet side, there can be no building up of pressure to balance thaton the intake side. a

When it is desired to manually operate the valve to completely shut off the flow of gas, such as during periods of'nonuse, the handle 21 is T availed of to move the stem 26 downwardly. This causes the needle point 39.-to engage the seat 41 and close the weep hole 46. Further downward movement causes the plug A' to be moved downward against the influence of the spring 48,' whereupon the conical surface 42 engages its seat l9. Ordinarily, this will be sufiicient to estab- However, there is'a po'ssibilitythat dirt ;or foreign matter might collect on this seat l9 which would result in an inaccurate or improper seating. Even should this take place, the manner in which the needle member 36 is carried by the stem 26 permits of a further downward movementof the stem against theinfluence of the spring 38, so as to cause the conical surface 33 to engage its seat IS in the casing. Thus, the gas will be cut off, even thou'gh the plug be improperly seated.

invention is hereinbefore set forth; it is to be clearly understood that the invention is not tobe limited to the exact constructions illustrated and described; because various modifications of a shoulder therebetween formed as a valve seat,

a plug having a head positioned in the bore of larger diameter and a shank in the bore of smaller diameter, with said shank in sliding engagement with the wall of said smaller bore, said shank and said wall cooperating to define a passageway communicating between said valve seat and the lower end of said shank said plug being formed with a valve surface complemental to said valve seat and a longitudinal weep hole extending through said shank and head and termimating in a valve seat in said head, spring means normally maintaining said valve surface spaced from said valve seat between the bores, a valve stem' operatively mounted in said casing and a needle member carried by said stem and having While a preferred specific embodiment of the a point complemental to the'valve seat at the end of said Weep hole, said valve stem being operable tomove said needle point into sealing position and cause said plug to move against the influence of said spring andseat said valve surface on the seat between said plugs.

HOWARD D. COULBOURN. 

